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FOX - Happy Days - (2013) :90 (USA)

In a show of technical expertise and efficiency, a52 rallied its highly skilled VFX team on an epic 1:30 spot for FOX Sports 1, America’s new sports network, launching Aug. 17. The spot, a slow-motion, on-the-field study of competition, perseverance and victory across the vast arenas of the modern sports landscape, was a triumph made possible by a52’s creation of a sophisticated production pipeline that integrated Massive with VRay to create more than 70 complex CG shots complementing the live-action footage of HSI Director Joseph Kahn.

“This was a huge undertaking for a one-office studio, but we used that size to our benefit,” noted a52 EP Megan Meloth. “Where sprawling international outfits may resort to simply dumping extra work onto their colleagues, our smaller team forces us to discover new efficiencies and innovations, benefitting both our short-term work for each project and our long-term ability to take on huge, important projects for big-time clients. With a tight-knit, highly skilled team in constant communication, our hope is that potential clients view our size not as an obstacle, but as a reason to work with a52.”

The spot’s exceptionally intense VFX demands arose from the need to complete nearly all of the crowd shots, full stadium replacements, and a handful of racing scenes in CG. In order to complete this mammoth undertaking in just two weeks, a52 built tools that allowed them to set up placement, behaviors and paths for Massive agents in Maya, which could then be rendered in VRAY. The team also built over one thousand unique textures, clothes and props specific to each stadium.

“We are one of the very few studios using Massive with Chaos Group’s VRay renderer,” explains a52 Technical Director Chris Janney, who posted an attention-grabbing how-to on the Massive forum for other studios trying to integrate the tool with VRay. “We worked closely with our TD team and artists to integrate Massive into the a52 pipeline, finding the bottlenecks and solving the issues rather quickly. Chaos was also extremely helpful, with Vlad, one of the founders, assisting us personally to get the VRay-Massive bridge running predictably.”

The pipeline turned out to be so efficient that artists unfamiliar with Massive could place agents, set up sims and output VRay files for lighters to render with just a couple hours of tutoring. Once lighters got ahold of the sims, they worked within the VRay environment in Maya to render the passes that the compositing teams needed, including ambient occlusion (AO) passes, normals passes, shadow, matte, and others. The pipeline also gave lighters the reference of Massive agent placement in their lighting scenes because all the placement curves came from Maya, simplifying the lighting process. “The main idea was to create a pipeline where lighters would stay in the lighting tool set they are used to, with only a few, easy-to-use buttons added,” notes Janney.

The CG pipeline dovetailed beautifully into the 2D workflow as well. The compositing team led by Patrick Murphy and Andy Barrios used the CG elements to create an atmosphere and look to the film that definitely makes you feel like you’re in the action. Upon delivering the spot, Robert Gottlieb, FOX Sports SVP/Head of Marketing praised the work saying, “The team at a52 was unreal. Just a fantastic job and more importantly, it was a real pleasure to work with them all.”

About a52:
Established in 1997 as a destination for the very latest high-end photo-real visual effects, a52 has become home to the industry’s most innovative and talented artists. The boutique full-service studio in Santa Monica works in tandem with award-winning editorial company Rock Paper Scissors and design company Elastic, the latter of which was recently named one of Fast Company’s 10 Most Innovative Companies in Entertainment.

a52’s collaborations with top directors, agencies and clients include commercial work for Target, adidas, Chevy and Nike; VFX work on The Social Network; and comprehensive coloring and finishing for the first season of Netflix’s House of Cards a52’s seamlessly integrated visual effects have helped to earn it near-annual AICP Show recognitions, top honors at Annecy, an Outstanding Commercial Emmy, and honors from the ANDY, BDA, Belding, Clio, British Design and Art Direction, International Monitor, International Automotive Advertising, London International Advertising and One Show awards.